Fedriga, the most popular governor speaks out against the 'commissariat' of the regions on waiting lists

Class of 1980, born in Verona, president of Friuli-Venezia Giulia since 2018 (and from 2021 also president of the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces) Massimiliano Feddriga took first place in the 2024 edition of the Governance Poll of Il Sole 24 Ore in the part that measures the consensus of governors. "I thank my land, my people for the trust. I do my best every day to live up to it, even if I know I don't always succeed, but I try my best. Thank you,' Fedriga wrote on social media referring to the first position obtained.

Before becoming regional president, Fedriga was a member of the Chamber of Deputies for three terms, holding various parliamentary posts, including that of group leader of the Lega Nord e Autonomie - Noi con Salvini from 8 July 2014 to 22 March 2018. After a first term of office from 2018 to 2023, Fedriga then ran again for the regional elections on 2-3 April 2023 supported again by the League, Fratelli d'Italia, Forza Italia, as well as by a personal civic list. And he was re-elected with a plebiscite: with 64% of the vote he doubled his centre-left opponent

Favourable to the hypothesis of a third term of office for governors and ready himself to run again if it were possible (as he declared today in an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore), he shared the government's fight against waiting lists, espousing, however, the Regions' no to the central government's de facto 'commissariat' in the control of health companies. "Article 2 of the current text," he said, "envisages that there will be control verification activities also as judicial police by the ministry directly to the health company. The consequence is 'a confusion of institutional competences' that could 'fail to achieve the objective'. But above all, 'the competences of the regions themselves are infringed'. Hence the proposal to amend Article 2 put forward by the regions 'in a logic of absolute institutional alliance and collaborative loyalty'. The idea of the governors' amendment is to create 'control and evaluation nuclei within the individual regions'. An amendment that provides that 'in turn, the ministry will monitor the regions on the achievement of objectives and checks. In this case, competences are guaranteed,' Fedriga continued, 'and there is an order that can make the measure itself efficient. On this, unfortunately, to date we have not had a positive response and therefore we could only give a negative judgement'.

As for differentiated autonomy, he believes it is 'an opportunity'. 'I am convinced,' he told Il Sole 24 Ore, 'that it will not create a rift between the North and the South: it is false and even humiliating to believe that the South is not equal to differentiated autonomy'.